Thomas Dennis (priest)

Thomas John Dennis (1869-1917) was an Anglican priest who was the main translator of the Bible into the Igbo language.[1][2]

Childhood and education

He was born into a farming family in Langney in Sussex on 17 September 1869 and grew up in Cuckfield, Guestling and St Leonards. He was the eldest of eight children, four of whom were to follow him into overseas mission[3]

He applied to joined the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1889, and because he had not been able to complete his education, was sent to the CMS Institution in Clapham then to the CMS training college in Islington.[4]

Dennis was ordained in St Paul's Cathedral in 1893, and served for some months as an assistant curate in the parish of St. Marys, Islington.[5]

He also studied at Durham University.[6]

Work in West Africa

He was assigned to West Africa in 1893. He was acting Vice-Principal of Fourah Bay College, Freetown, Sierra Leone (1893-1894) before joining the Niger Mission in November 1894. Initially, his duties were mainly administrative, as Acting Secretary to the mission in 1895. Following the death of the Secretary H.H. Dobinson in 1897, Dennis became Secretary and was appointed Archdeacon of Onitsha in 1905. He was also Commissary and Examining Chaplain to the Rt Rev. Herbert Tugwell, Bishop in Western Equatorial Africa.[7]

Bible translation

Dennis was one of the new generation of Evangelicals who were disappointed that, among other things, the Niger mission was not a "Scriptural Mission". There was no Bible in the local language and any translation efforts were directed towards hymnals and liturgy.[8] He therefore undertook a new translation of the Bible into the Igbo language from 1906 to 1913 under the auspices of the British and Foreign Bible Society.[9] It was considered that he alone had anything near what could be regarded as the experience and training for translation work.[10]

Shortly after completing the Bible translation, Dennis died in a shipping accident off the Welsh coast. The Bible manuscript he was working on was reportedly washed ashore and found by a fisherman.

The Dennis Memorial Grammar School in Onitsha is named after him.[11][12][13]

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References
  1. "Diocese of Owerri (Anglican Communion)". www.owerrianglican.org.
  2. DACB
  3. "Part 1". September 26, 2017.
  4. "Part 1". September 26, 2017.
  5. "Part 1". September 26, 2017.
  6. ”The Clergy List” London, Kelly’s, 1913
  7. "Igbo Culture and the Christian Missions, 1857-1957: Conversion in Theory and Practice" Okwu, A.S.O. p165: Lanham, Maryland; Rowman & Littlefield; 2010 ISBN 978-0-7618-4884-4
  8. Journal of Niger Delta Studies 1:2, p.66 1977
  9. Fulford, Ben (2002). "An Igbo Esperanto: A History of the Union Ibo Bible 1900-1950". Journal of Religion in Africa. 32 (4): 457–501. ISSN 0022-4200.
  10. Journal of Niger Delta Studies 1:2, p.66 1977
  11. "Rev Tom Dennis". Rev Tom Dennis. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  12. DOBA
  13. Dennis and the Ibo Bible: The Missionary Work of Tom Dennis in Nigeria and the Creation of the Union Ibo Language 0954637100 John Goodchild (Rev. Canon.) 2003
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